Practical Experiences: Pulmonary Function Testing: Use of the Peak Expiratory Row Rate in an Out-Patient or Office Setting

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Abstract
Thus, the weekly use of peak expiratory flow rate measurements in an out-patient office setting, for the purpose of generating multiple, serial, repetitive measurements to serve as a data base for a particular patient, will from time to time provide useful information helpful in the decision-making process pertaining to therapy. The peak expiratory flow rate maneuver is said to produce information referable primarily to the larger airways (although to a certain extent a patient restricted by inability to take a deep breath may also produce a decreased peak expiratory flow rate measurement), and it is certainly true that other measurements such as complete spirometry, FEV1, FEV25-75, or FEF75-90, or various gas exchange procedures will often produce information more accurately and precisely pertaining to the pulmonary status of an individual patient at any given point in time. However, the relative lack of expense and the ease and convenience of use of the peak expiratory flow rate meters currently available render this particular maneuver quite useful in following patients in an outpatient setting. This usefulness derives both from the patient's familiarity with the maneuver and therefore its ready availability for use during an acute process, as well as from the multiplicity of data serially derived forming a data base against which to compare the patient with himself at any given point in time, with the result that, under acute circumstances, when more frequent pulmonary function testing measurements are necessary, the patient's response to bronchodilator treatment can be assessed not only with respect to the severity of the ongoing acute process but also in terms of his performance when well.

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